More than the excitement over the upcoming weekend, it’s the prospect of playing poker with cofounder Sidharth Gupta that never fails to create a buzz.

"There are never any formal invitations made for our Friday night poker games, we make spontaneous plans. Often it’s my house that’s the venue, but we all take turns hosting," said Gupta. "It’s a casual and fun way to spend an evening. We simply set up two tables and play some quality poker. I would do the same with my college friends."

For fellow cofounder Rahul Chaudhary, the football ground is the venue of choice, and some Sunday mornings he can be seen heading to a nearby play arena with employees. Clearly, Gupta and Chaudhary have a different leadership style — one that draws on bonding with employees beyond the confines of the workplace. And they’re not alone in doing so.

Geetansh Bamania, CEO at Rentomojo, takes part in regular jam sessions with musically-inclined teammembers. "There are about 15 of us in the music club, which I’ve found is a great platform to just let loose and play some quality music," he said. A self-confessed bibliophile, he also attends regular book club meetings with about 25-30 others.

And at Droom, cofounder Rishab Malik often zooms away on Sunday morning rides with a group of coworkers, all sharing a passion for motorcycles. About a month ago, he was part of a group of Droom employees who rode down to neighbouring city Sirohi. "Next year, we want to ride down to India Bike Week in Goa," he said.

Startups have mushroomed around the country and brought with them a spirit of innovation, but they’ve also heralded a change in leadership styles. The image of the intimidating boss keeping a strictly professional relationship with employees is now passe. Now, young and dynamic leaders at these newage companies thrive on building common interests and forging personal connections with coworkers.

"It’s a new age, one that is characterised by leaders wanting to be friends with employees and keeping in touch on issues not related to work. For startups with small to moderate staff strength, it’s definitely possible for founders and/or CEOs to make personal associations," said Anish Sarkar, country leader, Mercer India.

At online house rental startup Grabhouse, employees participate in karaoke nights with CMO Pankhuri Shrivastava, and table tennis games with cofounder Prateek Shukla. At Delhi-based fintech startup IndiaLends, cofounders Gaurav Chopra and Mayank Kachhwaha play chess, darts, and sometimes even Fifa with team-members. In fact, a new hire in the branding and marketing team has induced Chopra to start working out with him, and a few times a week, the two of them head to the gym together.

"Once a week, a bunch of us sit together with our laptops, look at online shopping sites, check out deals, and make purchases. We decide our themes in advance, one week we might be buying books, the next week’s session could be dedicated to clothes — it’s a fun experience that really creates better bonding," said Gundecha.

Food is also a big part of the culture at Jombay, with outings to neighbouring restaurants a regular part of the agenda. "All of us love exploring new cuisines, and there aren’t too many restaurants in Pune which we haven’t been to," Gundecha said.

With startup leaders becoming more approachable to employees and going all out to disrupt authority structures, there is always a risk that some employees may make the mistake of thinking they deserve special treatment. "It’s important for young leaders to be friendly and share personal connections with employees, but a balance needs to be struck for smooth functioning of the organisation," said Mercer’s Anish Sarkar.

Interestingly, though, not one of these young leaders has found, in the course of their personal interactions, that employees try to get over-friendly or cross the line between friendly and awkward. "Everyone is mature enough to realise that work needs to get done no matter what, and being friendly with the boss won’t get one out of delivering on KRAs," said Grabhouse’s Shrivastava.

"Employees understand without having to be told that there are boundaries between fun and work. It gets lonely at the top, and having friends at the workplace alleviates that to a very large extent," said Gundecha.